Regarding Feint
Arcee is sitting on the rooftop with a glass of enerwine, watching the cityscape pensively. The doors of the inner lift open. But instead of one of the aerialbots or a shuttle arriving to be launched, the large frame of Orion Pax steps out of the lift. As he starts to make his way to a familiar spot to him to look out over the city, he pauses when he sees that he is not alone. "Arcee." he offers. "I did not mean to interrupt. I can come back another time if you are being introspective." "Huh?" Arcee looks like she's definitely been taken off guard. Perhaps she was expecting /someone/, but that someone was most certainly not Pax. "Oh no! Actually, I'm just hanging out here, please. Stick around if you have some time. I'll even put the booze away," she grins and puts the enerwine into subspace. As he takes in the surprise, the wine, and the sheepishness of the femme, Orion can quickly put together what he may have just walked in on without having much experience on the matter himself. "An odd place for a date night, Arcee." the mech comments with just a ghost of a smile on his exposed face as he moves to stand a slight distance away and leans on the safety railing to overlook Iacon - the Decagon in the distance to the east and the dim lights of Nyon off to the west. The mech pulls his lips into a frown and shakes his head before continuing his contemplation. "If your company for the evening is to arrive, I will be sure to depart post haste." "No, really, I don't have a date. Really. In fact...the mech I've been looking for, I haven't even seen around base today, so he's probably busy prepping for tomorrow." Arcee muses. "Speaking of which, where is everyone? Base seems kind of empty tonight." "Patrols, for the most part. Zeta has us on a higher alert since Soundwave was able to assist in Swindle's escape from the Senate chambers." Orion responds as he his hands close around the railing and his expression falters. "I was not able to prevent their escape and Zeta fears that the information from the Senate may be used by the Decepticons for future planning." he comments. "Some of the others are in the medical area, welcoming back Feint from her servitude to Megatron." There's a creak of metal as Orion's fingers actually manage to bend the metal before releasing it. "That Soundwave, what a slippery one he is," Arcee exclaims, shaking her head. "And he doesn't even look the sort, either. I'm surprised he was able to pull that off. So don't feel bad about it; you got much closer to preventing it than Prime himself." At the mention of Feint, Arcee looks mildly repulsed. "Oh, yeah. /Her/. Almost forgot she was back again, hm." "You have a problem with Feint's return?" Orion asks, his tone is neither sympathetic or accusatory, just a neutral tone that suggests a genuine curiosity in the femme's concerns. "I do, but it isn't like I have a say in it one way or another," Arcee admits. "And I am under orders to treat her like 'any other Autobot', so if I come across her somewhere along the line I will make the effort that's required. But I'll be honest with you: I'm never going to trust her." "I invited you to share your concerns, Arcee. If I wanted you to give me the party line, I wouldn't has asked if you had a problem. What's on your mind?" Orion asks the femme, though he continues to look out over the city instead of returning his attention to her. "She tortured prisoners in Kolkular using her outlier powers, she was taught how to manipulate memory files...with those needles...whatever that's called," Arcee says. "Yes, she's Blurr's conjunx and she probably very genuinely cares for him. And maybe he's willing to forgive and forget what she's done, but that's because he loves her. Now, she's worked for the Decepticons for a while, and she's come back here and...and all is forgiven and forgotten now? Clean slate? Well...I remember things. I'm going to be avoiding her because I don't want my mind erased. She probably still knows how to do that." "And if I were to tell you that I studied her medical file when she returned and discovered that Shockwave has permanently separated her from her abilities?" Orion asks. "I'm not asking you to forget what she's done. But she was forced to spend twenty thousand years in a frame that was not hers - while her frame was destroyed. She no longer has any of her abilities. And there has been.. a great many changes, Arcee. I ask that before you pronounce her as someone to avoid forever, that you at least speak your piece with her so that she would understand why." he responds to the femme. "Everyone deserves a chance to explain themselves, would you not agree?" "Well..." Arcee stands beside Orion, staring out at the cityscape with mild frustration. "See, I really like Blurr. I mean, he was one of my first friends outside of the Senate. And I don't want to lose /his/ friendship," she admits. "I'd be willing to talk to her, but only for the sake of maintaining my friendship with Blurr. Maybe you're right, maybe she is a whole new person without those powers. I'll think about it. I'm not trying to make any enemies around here, but I had issues with her from the beginning, so...this goes back quite some time." "A while back, when I was first moved into this frame, I went on a mission. I was escorting a pair of Decepticons across the Rust Sea for a prisoner exchange. Those two Decepticons were responsible for an attack on the G'th Semane spaceport. It had done little damage, but they were still prisoners. Ratchet had been captured and I was to take these two to be exchanged for Ratchet. Now think on that for a moment. They were both terrorists, and they would had no reason to assist me or Alpha Trion. They even had a couple of chances to escape as I was escorting them. Instead, it was because of them that we were able to escape from a trap the Decepticons had set and soon afterwards, they actually changed sides and joined the Autobots." Orion states, without giving away the fact that the two were Rack and Ruin - and while that isn't /exactly/ how it went, Orion sticks to the details he feels Arcee needs to hear. "Feint did not go willingly to the Decepticons to assist them for the last twenty millennium. She did what she had to in order to survive and eventually earn her freedom. Even when she was under the control of others at the Institute, she had to do what she must to survive. It's not much in her defense, but I think it at least to give her enough credit to speak to her. Just think on it, Arcee. I'm not going to make it an order. It's free choice, which is all you can ask for." "I know. And take your time. No gun to your head." Orion offers with a faint smile. It doesn't reach his optics, however. Something is holding deep in his mind, as he pushes back from the railing. "I just needed to get a moment away from my desk. I should get back to it and get some rest sooner or later." Much much later. Turning, he heads back to the elevator. "Don't stay out too late, you wouldn't wear out your antifreeze." he comments. "Good evening, Arcee." "You too, Pax, take it easy and don't work too hard," Arcee tells him with an appreciative smile. She actually does feel a bit better about the Feint situation. At the very least, Pax has convinced her to (eventually) give Feint a chance, which was more than she was going to do.